Indiegogo targets the enterprise with new crowdfunding feature

Crowdfunding site Indiegogo, the well-known launchpad of new products and startups, is expanding its reach through new features that will help even enterprises to crowdfund new ideas.

Called ‘enterprise crowdfunding,’ Indiegogo’s new feature aims to help the large, well-established companies to test consumer’s interest in their new ventures. Given that enterprises do not typically require funding as compared to startups, the new feature mainly intends to leverage the site’s audience and reach.

For starters, Indiegogo is going to work with General Electric, Harman International Industries, Hasbro, and Shock Top. To cite as an example, General Electric can create a pre-order campaign and see if people actually want these new products.

However, to avoid the risk of these large companies using Indiegogo as means to market themselves as edgy companies, the crowdfunding platform will be providing strategy advice, hands-on support, promotions, and analytics data.

Indiegogo CEO Slava Rubin said: "We created Indiegogo to empower anyone, anywhere to raise funds for their ideas, from the inventor working out of her garage to the largest Fortune 500 companies looking to create innovative new products that line up with what customers really want. Some of the world’s most successful companies are already using Indiegogo for product development, market research, and to support causes important to them. Now we’re taking that a step further with Enterprise Crowdfunding."

General Electric has already successfully tested the model with its Paragon Induction Cooktop and Shock Top already launched a campaign in August 2015 called Shock the Drought.

Meanwhile, Harman is going to launch a campaign for selective noise cancellation headphones, and Hasbro is going to work on board and card games.